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Under Fire: Pat Robertson Alzheimer’s Comment Outrages America

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Televangelist Pat Robertson’s comments about leaving a spouse who has Alzheimer’s have drawn fire from every outlet imaginable. Evangelical Christian megachurch leaders condemned Robertson’s advice to a viewer of his 700 Club show that it’s OK to leave a spouse for another love interest if the spouse has Alzheimer’s. Christianity Today Magazine wrote, “Pat Robertson Repudiates the Gospel.” And The Alzheimer’s Foundation of America issued a statement advocating compassion for Alzheimer’s patients and their families and classified Robertson’s comment as insensitive.

Eric J. Hall, founding president and chief executive officer of the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, in a statement said that Robertson’s comments highlight the very need for greater efforts to educate the public about the impact of Alzheimer’s disease on individuals and their families, and to destroy the stigma and misperceptions that surround the brain disorder.

“There is no doubt that this heartbreaking disease robs people of their memories and other intellectual functions, but to liken Alzheimer’s disease to, as Mr. Robertson said, ‘a kind of death’ fosters an insensitivity that feeds misperceptions about the disease,” Hall said. “It fails to take into account that people with Alzheimer’s disease, although impaired, deserve optimal care and dignity. Love and compassion are the greatest gifts for every human being until their very last breath.”

Ironically, Robertson’s fellow Christian leaders were not as kind.

The Christian Post offers these comments:

“I’m just flabbergasted,” Joel Hunter, pastor of the 15,000-member Northland Church in Orlando, Fla., told ABC News. “I just don’t know how anyone who is reading Scripture or is even familiar with the traditional wedding vows can come out with a statement like that.”

Hunter continued, “Obviously, we can all rationalize the legitimacy for our own comfort that would somehow make it OK to divorce our spouse if circumstances become very different or inconvenient. … That’s almost universal, but there’s just no way you can get out of what Jesus says about marriage.”

…

ABC News also spoke with Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE).

According to Anderson, marriage is a lifelong and faithful commitment between a man and a woman that calls for the couple to endure good times and bad.

Anderson referred to the book of Corinthians when he spoke with ABC News, saying, “The wife’s body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband’s body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. You can’t quit your own body with Alzheimer’s, so you shouldn’t quit your husband’s or wife’s body either.”

Albert Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, reacted to Robertson’s comments on Twitter, writing, “This is what happens when you abandon Scripture and do theology and morality by your gizzard. Let’s call it what it is.”

John Piper, of Desiring God Ministries, also commented on Twitter, writing, “Pat Robertson’s view of how Christ loves the church and gives himself for her. Leave her for another.”

Christianity Today writes,

This is more than an embarrassment. This is more than cruelty. This is a repudiation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Few Christians take Robertson all that seriously anymore. Most roll their eyes, and shake their heads when he makes another outlandish comment (for instance, defending China’s brutal one-child abortion policy to identifying God’s judgment on specific actions in the September 11 attacks, Hurricane Katrina, or the Haiti earthquake). This is serious, though, because it points to an issue that is much bigger than Robertson.

William Saletan at Slate says “Robertson has been denounced not just as a hypocrite by liberals, but as a heretic by Christians,” but pens a despicably supportive piece about Robertson, mischaracterizing Robertson’s words, saying, “Robertson didn’t advocate divorce.” Perhaps Saletan would like to watch the video again?

https://youtube.com/watch?v=_qt_JCnRdCQ%3Fversion%3D3%26hl%3Den_US

Saletan expands the comments made by Joel Hunter to ABC:

Joel Hunter, a prominent evangelical pastor, sees no wiggle room in [Robertson’s] words. “We can all rationalize” that it’s “OK to divorce our spouse if circumstances become very different or inconvenient,” Hunter told ABC News. But “we have to stop trying to mischaracterize what Scripture says for our own convenience.” Hunter worried that “you could do this for anything.” For example: “My husband watches and plays video games, and so he has left the marriage, and it’s kind of like a death.”

For the record, here’s what Pat Robertson actually said, courtesy of Slate:

At the tail end of Tuesday’s show, his cohost, Terry Meeuwsen, read a chat-room question from a man seeking advice. The message said:

I have a friend whose wife suffers from Alzheimer’s. She doesn’t even recognize him anymore, and, as you can imagine, the marriage has been rough. My friend has gotten bitter at God for allowing his wife to be in that condition, and now he’s started seeing another woman. He says that he should be allowed to see other people because his wife as he knows her is gone … I’m not quite sure what to tell him.

Meeuwsen turned to Robertson for an answer. In the video, you can see him struggling:

That is a terribly hard thing. I hate Alzheimer’s. It is one of the most awful things, because here’s the loved one—this is the woman or man that you have loved for 20, 30, 40 years, and suddenly that person is gone. They’re gone. They are gone. So what he says basically is correct, but—I know it sounds cruel, but if he’s going to do something, he should divorce her and start all over again. But to make sure she has custodial care and somebody looking after her—

Meeuwsen interjected: “But isn’t that the vow that we take when we marry someone, that it’s for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer?” To this, Robertson replied,

Yeah, I know, if you respect that vow, but you say “till death do us part,” this is a kind of death. So that’s what he’s saying, is that she’s like—but this is an ethical question that is beyond my ken to tell you. But I certainly wouldn’t put a guilt trip on you if you decided that you had to have companionship. You’re lonely, and you’re asking for some companionship, as opposed to—but what a grief. I know one man who went to see his wife every single day, and she didn’t recognize him one single day, and she would complain that he never came to see her. And it’s really hurtful, because they say crazy things. … It is a terribly difficult thing for somebody, and I can’t fault them for wanting some kind of companionship. And if he says in a sense she is gone, he’s right. It’s like a walking death. But get some ethicist besides me to give you the answer, because I recognize the dilemma and the last thing I’d do is condemn you for taking that kind of action.

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News

Trump’s Coalition Is ‘Kaput’ — Midterms Threaten to Be ‘Brutal’: Columnists

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April 16, 2026

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The coalition that united to put Donald Trump back in the White House in 2024 is “kaput,” and with a president polling even worse than at this point in his first term, the November midterms are threatening to be “brutal” for Republicans, argue Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Elaine Godfrey at The Atlantic.

“A shocking number of the president’s supporters have turned against him,” the columnists write.

“When Trump opens his mouth, three-quarters of what he says is stories, lies,” Tomas Montoya, a Trump voter, told The Atlantic outside a popular Hispanic grocery store in Casa Grande, Arizona.

“Montoya voted for President Trump in 2024, but now, well, frustrated doesn’t begin to cover how he’s feeling. The president is bragging about the economy, even though everyone Montoya knows is hurting; he promised to stop wars, but started one in Iran,” The Atlantic notes. “He’s planning to vote in the midterm elections this fall. But he may not choose a Republican.”

Some Trump voters, like Montoya, the columnists explain, sound “anxious, and a little regretful about how they voted two Novembers ago.”

They describe some of Trump’s “fanboys in the libertarian-leaning manosphere” as “baffled by his actions on the Epstein files, immigration, and now Iran.”

Religious conservatives “have been criticizing their once-unassailable leader after he posted a photo on social media of himself as Jesus and attacked the pope, calling the first American pontiff ‘WEAK on Crime.'”

Some battleground Republican operatives would prefer the president not campaign “too hard” for their candidates.

READ MORE: Conservative Christian Broadcaster Slams Franklin Graham’s ‘Embarrassing’ Defense of Trump

How bad are the midterms expected to be for the GOP?

“Almost every new poll is a red flag for Republicans,” they write. “Independents, young voters, and Latinos—groups that were crucial to Trump’s win in 2024—aren’t in the bag anymore. Even non-college-educated white Americans, once the president’s strongest group, have turned on him, according to a CNN polling average.”

One 61-year-old Democrat who opted to vote for Trump in 2024 hoping he would bring down high prices says she is poorer today than she was two years ago.

“High gas prices mean that she is staying home more often—skipping Bible studies at her church, volunteering less, and even missing exercise classes. Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran was her breaking point with the president. ‘I think that he just wants war,’ she said. ‘He’s made it plain that he’s adversarial with everybody.'”

Trump’s highly controversial AI post of himself “dressed in flowing robes, surrounded by a heavenly glow while healing a sick man … alienated the one group of Americans that has rarely left his side: Christian conservatives. The picture, declared the Daily Wire reporter Megan Basham, was ‘OUTRAGEOUS blasphemy.'”

Far-right pastor Joel Webbon, who, The Atlantic noted, opposes women being allowed to vote, said that Trump is “currently demon possessed.”

Anti-trans activist Riley Gaines, whom the president has called a “tremendous athlete,” wrote that “God shall not be mocked.”

Some fundraising “plummeted” in early March after Trump launched his Iran war.

“If this is a two-week stretch, not a huge deal,” a GOP consultant told The Atlantic. “If we’re still bombing Iran in November? I mean …”

READ MORE: ‘I’m All About the Gospel’ Trump Says After Refusing to Meet With Pope Leo

 

Image via Reuters 

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‘I’m All About the Gospel’ Trump Says After Refusing to Meet With Pope Leo

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12 hours ago

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April 16, 2026

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Amid an escalating feud with President Donald Trump lashing out at the first American pope, Pope Leo XIV, and the pope promoting a pro-peace, anti-war message the president opposes, Trump is refusing to meet with the Vicar of Christ.

“I don’t think it’s necessary,” Trump declared on Thursday afternoon, despite new poll numbers that show his support among Catholics slipping after his attacks on the pontiff.

Earlier on Thursday, Pope Leo had posted to social media a message some thought was meant for the president.

“Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth,” he wrote.

Asked specifically about it, Trump did not answer directly, instead telling reporters that it’s “very important that the Pope understands, very, very important…Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”

Trump also told reporters, “I’m all about the Gospel. I’m all about it as much as anybody can be!”

READ MORE: Conservative Christian Broadcaster Slams Franklin Graham’s ‘Embarrassing’ Defense of Trump

 

Image via Reuters

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Conservative Christian Broadcaster Slams Franklin Graham’s ‘Embarrassing’ Defense of Trump

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13 hours ago

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April 16, 2026

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Conservative Christian evangelist Franklin Graham is rushing to President Donald Trump’s aid, defending an image the president posted that appeared to depict him as Jesus Christ, “bathed in divine light and clad in religious robes,” as The New York Times described, and one of the president with Jesus Christ. One conservative Christian broadcaster isn’t buying Graham’s defense.

“I do not believe President Trump would knowingly depict himself as Jesus Christ—that would certainly be inappropriate,” Graham wrote on social media on Thursday. “I’m thankful the President has made it very clear that this was not at all what he thought the AI-generated image was representing—he thought it was a doctor helping someone, and when he learned of the concerns, he immediately removed the post.”

“I think this is a lot to do about nothing,” Graham continued, noting that there were no halos, crosses, or angels in the illustration. “There is so much ill-intended speculation. I think his enemies are always foaming at the mouth at any possible opportunity to make him look bad.”

He went on to defend an image Trump also posted that appeared to show him being embraced by Christ.

READ MORE: Trump Axes Catholic Charities Funding for Migrant Kids Amid Pope Feud: Report

“I like the fact that this is a picture of Jesus whispering in his ear, or at least His hand on his shoulder, guiding him,” Graham declared. “We all need that—we all need to be listening to Jesus…Remember, President Trump didn’t draw this, he didn’t create it, he reposted it on his social media because he thought it was nice—I would have to agree.”

Graham called Trump the “most pro-Christian, pro-life president in my lifetime,” and suggested the Pope should “thank the President for his efforts to protect religious liberty for Catholics and people of all faiths.”

Erick Erickson, a conservative evangelical talk radio host and political commentator once described as the “most powerful conservative in America,” blasted Graham’s remarks.

“This is embarrassing,” he wrote in response to Graham’s post.

He was not alone in his condemnation.

“So laughable it’s sad. Sycophancy comes to the Graham name. Deeply unserious,” declared Professor Matthew Boedy, who focuses on the rhetoric of religion.

Republican former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a former Trump ally, also blasted Graham.

“Franklin Graham making excuses for Trump posting himself as Jesus is one of the worst things I’ve seen,” she wrote. “Trump posted his blasphemous picture with Satan added above him, the original picture had a soldier. If you search ‘pictures of Jesus’ most of them show Jesus in white with a red robe over his shoulders. Franklin Graham of all people, who is frequently at the WH and with Trump, should be leading Trump to be a Christian, NOT telling other Christians that Trump did nothing wrong when he committed blasphemy.”

READ MORE: Why Trump Might Want to Try to ‘Usher’ Alito Into Retirement: CNN Analysis

 

Image via Reuters 

 

 

 

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